[CAPTAIN JAMES COOK (1728-1779)]

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[CAPTAIN JAMES COOK (1728-1779)]

A magnifier, in tortoiseshell mount, in silver case of capstan form, the cover engraved with an inscription 'THIS MAGNIFIER WAS GIVEN by Captain James Cook, the celebrated navigator TO Mr WILLm. BAYLY the ASTRONOMER to the expedition during Cook's 3rd Voyage and presented by Mr Bayly to his Pupil, friend & Executor MARK BEAUFOY ESQr. F.R.S., the capstan 2¾in. (6.9cm.) high

maker's mark 'WC' perhaps for William Carter, London, 1844, marked on side and inside cover, further stamped WIDDOWSON & VEALE 73 STRAND' on the base

Provenance

A gift from Captain Cook to William Bayly (bap.1738-1810) and presented by Bayly to his pupil and executor, the astronomer and physicist Mark Beaufoy (1767-1827) (see presentation inscription on the lid of mount), and thence by descent to the present owners.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Sale room notice

We are grateful to Don Anderson, Oakville, Ontario for the following additional information on the Beaufoy provenance:

'The appearance of the Bayly magnifier at the Christie's sale reveals new information that will be useful to historians and to descendants of the Bayly family. The existence of the magnifier was heretofore unknown. All of Bayly's scientific instruments, watches, chronometers etc. were thought to have been sold at auction in Portsea in January 1811 except for one large telescope and his journals and papers which were explicitly given to Colonel Mark Beaufoy, the Executor, in Bayly's Will. Since the date of the Will is 22 September 1810, in which Beaufoy is named as Executor, one would presume the gift of the Cook magnifier was made by a grateful Bayly to Beaufoy for accepting the onerous task of Executor (there were over 20 major bequests totalling over 30,000 pounds) in that 4-month period between September and his death in December. There was another Executor, Thomas Meese, a wealthy carpet manufacturer from Wilton to whom Bayly left all his remaining South Sea Curiosities, but he died soon after Bayly.

It had never been established how Bayly came to know Beaufoy, since they came from greatly different backgrounds. But now we know, he was a pupil of Bayly.

In June 1909, the "Valuable Library of Books & Manuscripts formed during the early part of the last century by Henry B.H. Beaufoy Esq." was sold at auction by Mess'rs Christie, Manson & Woods at the same King Street address. At this sale, A.H. Turnbull of Wellington, New Zealand purchased all of Bayly's journals which thankfully now reside in the Turnbull Library. It had been presumed the Beaufoy family had thus divested all its remaining Bayly possessions in 1909 since Coombe House, Shaftesbury was also sold a few years later. Well that now appears to not be the case, so a new avenue of enquiry has opened up.'

Lot Essay

William Bayly was appointed assistant to the astronomer royal Nevil Maskelyne at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, in 1776. Having mastered observational astronomy, he sailed on HMS Emerald to observe the transit of Venus at Nordkapp, Norway, on 3 June 1769. On Maskelyne's recommendation, Bayly was appointed by the Board of Longitude, as astronomer, along with William Wales, to Cook's second voyage, sailing from Plymouth in July 1772. Wales and Bayly were instructed 'to make Nautical & Astronomical Observations, and to perform other Services tending to the Improvement of Geography & Navigation' (Journals, 2.724). Bayly sailed on the Adventure (Captain Furneaux) and Wales on Cook's Resolution. The astronomers had charge of the new longitude timekeepers -- Wales one by Larcum Kendall and one by John Arnold on Resolution, and Bayly two by Arnold on Adventure. Bayly's observations made on the voyage were published in 1777, edited by Wales.

With Cook's return on the Resolution in 1775 and the decision to send him out in July the following year to explore the north Pacific, Bayly was again appointed astronomer, sailing on the Discovery (Captain Charles Clerke), along with James King, second lieutenant and astronomer on Cook's Resolution. After Cook's death in Hawaii in 1779 Bayly transferred to the Resolution and left the voyage at Stromness in 1780. He was commissioned by the Board to prepare the observations made on the voyage by Cook, King and himself, which were published in 1782.

Bayly was appointed headmaster of the Royal Naval Academy, Portsmouth Dockyard, a post he held from 1785 until it was transformed into the Royal Naval College in 1807. He died at Portsea, Hampshire on 21 December, 1810.

Mark Beaufoy, Bayly's pupil and executor, to whom the present relic passed, came from Quaker stock, was the first Englishman to summit Mont Blanc (1787) and was a distinguished physicist and astronomer. He was elected to the Royal Society in 1790 and founder member of the Society for the Improvement of Naval Architecture in 1791. He died at Bushey on 4 May 1827 and Cook's relic subsequently descended in his family to the present owners.

The inscription on the silver capstan records that 'this magnifier was given by Captain James Cook ... to Mr Willm. Bayly'. It may equally plausibly have been acquired by Bayly at the dispersal of Cook's effects on board the Resolution. Cook's clothes and belongings were sold at auction to his officers in the Resolution's Great Cabin shortly after his death at Hawaii. 'Such a ceremony was a gesture of respect and support for the dead man's family (who received the money that was raised), while keeping his relics among his shipmates.' (A. Salmond, The Trial of the Cannibal Dog, London, 2003, p.420)

The relic is not recorded in M.K.Beddie (ed.), Bibliography of Captain James Cook, Sydney, 1970 (Relics, pp.617-648).

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